KYLE PEAR­SON

2004 VOLK­SWA­GEN JETTA GLI

yle Pear­son has held a par­tic­u­lar affin­ity for the Mk4 Jetta since he owned his first VW, back when he was just 17 years old. “I chose this ve­hi­cle be­cause my pre­vi­ous ve­hi­cle was a Mk4 Jetta as well, and it was taken from me in an un­for­tu­nate sit­u­a­tion that was be­yond my con­trol,” he tells us. “I never got to fin­ish that build, and so I vowed to come back with an­other Mk4 Jetta, big­ger and bet­ter than my last one.”

With in­ten­tions to fol­low up on a vi­sion he had, he set out to mod­ify his new 2004 Jetta GLI. His ob­ses­sion with mod­i­fy­ing cars started where many other young en­thu­si­asts catch the mod­i­fi­ca­tion bug from – the Fast & Fu­ri­ous and Need for Speed fran­chises.

“Af­ter ex­pe­ri­enc­ing both of those, you could say I was bit­ten by the build­ing bug," Pear­son laughs. "I went through a few

Kd­if­fer­ent phases in my younger years and made some pretty poor de­ci­sions with pre­vi­ous ve­hi­cles, but just as your taste buds change over time, your taste for ve­hi­cles will change as well.”

Keep­ing things sim­ple and clean, Pear­son had the car painted in Mercedes-Benz Dolomit­braun Metal­lic paint, a paint that stands out on the show­room floor, but still main­tains some ci­vil­ity on the street. He also opted for wheels of the Ja­panese va­ri­ety, tuck­ing some Work Meis­ter S1Rs to the fender with the help of Air Lift Per­for­mance's Slam Se­ries XL bags up front, and a com­bi­na­tion of Koni FSD shocks and Fire­stone F9000 air sleeves in the rear.

In­spired by other VW builders around the world, Pear­son has been work­ing non-stop to change things up and take part in his lo­cal scene.

“This is an amaz­ing scene to be a part of, and I have en­joyed ev­ery mo­ment of be­ing a 'car guy,'" he writes to us. "I have met many strangers who have be­come friends, and friends who have be­come fam­ily. Aside from the small num­ber of ex­cep­tions, that's what this scene is about."